Developing Effective Teams

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Video Chapters

Video Transcription

Hi, I'm Jeff. And in this lesson, we'll discuss the Responsibility Matrix. This matrix describes the levels of responsibility for members of the project. So let's learn more about it.

This matrix is often called a RACI. That's an acronym for responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed. The letters in the acronym are used in the matrix to describe the levels of interaction needed by stakeholders and team members.

There are other versions which use different letters, but the concepts are the same. This matrix helps define the governance of the project. So no matter what matrix is used, the final version must be approved by the key decision makers.

An example responsibility matrix is shown here. The RACI method is used to assign stakeholders and team members varying levels of interaction for each action listed. The actions listed should be high level actions. So don't get down to the task level.

These levels of interaction are responsible. These are the people that do the work. The goal of this project is to build a mobile application that handles sales contacts. Note that the lead programmer in our project is responsible for the contact database that will be used by the application.

Accountable, this is used for people who approve project actions. Stakeholders often have this level of authority. For example, the project sponsor is responsible for the project design phase gate. Consulted, individuals who advise on actions but don't have a decision authority on a project. The database vendors representative is consulted about the contact database design, but they can't make decisions for the project.

Informed, the project manager must communicate with these people about project actions. But these people don't have a decision authority. The support manager, who must handle technical questions about the sales application once it's complete, must be kept informed of all project actions. But they don't have direct decision authority on the project. The project manager should review the scope, schedule, and budget to identify these actions, and to determine the level of interaction each person must have. As shown, be sure to include all project gates in the matrix.

And that's all for this lesson. Good job. You've learned how a project manager creates a responsibility matrix using the RACI method. Thanks for your time. And have a great day.

Terms to Know

RACI

A matrix that describes the overall responsibility and interaction project stakeholders have in a project.